I would like to suggest that the WG consider producing an explicit,
free-standing Use Cases document for SVG 1.2 and SVG 2.0.
Several points lead me to that suggestion.
1. The WG is clearly looking to see how SVG can be better communicated. I
think a Use Cases document can assist in improving communication of SVG to a
wider audience.
2. Anything but a non-trivial software project is likely to have Use Cases,
however they may be elicited or recorded. So why shouldn't W3C
specifications? Making use cases explicit helps to focus attention on the
result being aimed for and which users benefit from what additional
functionality. I see this as being different from a Requirements document
which can tend to focus on technical solutions to, sometimes, poorly or
inadequately expressed user needs.
The user is king. The user, ultimately, funds W3C through member company
profits. If a spec doesn't meet real user needs, then I would suggest that it
needs to be reviewed.
3. A Use Cases document which expresses ... in terms relevant to users ...
what SVG can do now, what it can't do (yet) and what it is hoped to do in SVG
version x.x provides a logical, helpful way in for people not yet using SVG
but who want to know what it can do without reading 800 pages of material. If
the potential and capabilities of SVG can be succinctly expressed in a
well-written Use Cases document, then a casual interest in SVG might become
something much more active. I see a Use Cases document of that type as being
an effective SVG evangelisation tool.
4. I have watched many W3C specifications through assorted WDs etc to Rec
status. My impression is that it is specifications without clearly expressed
use case documents that are more problematic. I know that is a sweeping
statement, but I am trying to convey impressions from having spent many, many
hours reading W3C specifications and watching how they are communicated and
how the technologies specified turn out.
I would like to see Use Cases documents adopted as a routine by W3C Working
Groups. They are, in my view, potentially of signficant assistance to users
and to WG members alike.
Andrew Watt